"Just be who you are, calm and clear and bright."
- Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

The Way the Cookie Crumbles

After the smashing success of the coconut cream pie (though the credit, of course, goes to Isa), I was feeling cocky. I am a VERY GOOD baker!, &c., &c.

You know how they say cooking is an art, baking a science? Truer words were never spoken. You must measure carefully and make substitutions even MORE carefully…or you will end up like yours truly, who subbed gluten-free flour (it said “all purpose”!) for the “real thing” in my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (out of The Joy of Vegan Baking), and wound up with this:

(I couldn’t bear to take a photograph of this mess on the actual baking pan.)

So, lesson one: if you want to bake gluten-free cookies for a friend, for goodness’ sake, use a special gluten-free cookie recipe like this one!

Lesson two: when life (or, er, your own carelessness?) hands you cookie crumbles, turn them into another dessert and pretend it was your plan all along.

(The last jar is pesto using a combo of farmshare basil and parsley and basil from my little windowsill herb garden, which I will show you soonish.)

I’d recently picked up a dozen wide-mouth Ball pint jars, and while a pint is rather too generous for one helping of dessert, I did not see why that should stop me. I envisioned something like a “mud pie,” with three strata—pudding, then cookie crumbles, then a different flavor of pudding on top. Then I got lazy and just did one layer of each. I made caramel pudding using this recipe (with almond milk), and at one point it looked like this dessert was going to fail almost as spectacularly:

The sugar re-melted, fortunately, although I ought to have let it “toast” for a couple minutes longer than the recipe suggested. It was still quite edible though—I packed it for our Falcon Ridge trip (more on that next week) and it kept me full (and my sweet tooth satisfied) for the first couple days!

Hi! I'm Camille. I only write stories that could never ever happen in real life, though I do believe in real-life magic. If we were in the same room I'd fix you a cup of tea, but for now we'll have to settle for a virtual connection. I'm really glad you're here.

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